Approach-motivated positive affect reduces breadth of attention: Registered replication report of Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008)

Domachowska, Irena; Heitmann, Christina; Deutsch, Roland; Goschke, Thomas; Scherbaum, Stefan; Bolte, Annette

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2015.09.003

Cited by 28 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Similarly, they reported that disgust, a negative emotion high in motivational intensity, narrowed attention (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2010). They also reported the same pattern for positive emotions: humor, low in motivational intensity broadened attention, whereas desire (i.e., films showing delicious deserts), high in motivational intensity narrowed attention (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008; for a recent replication of this study, see Domachowska et al, 2016;Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2016). Based on these studies they concluded that motivational intensityand not valence per seaccounted for the differences in global-local processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…For example, Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008) showed that desire, which is high in motivational intensity, had a narrowing effect on attention, whereas humor, which is low in motivational intensity, had a broadening effect on attention. Domachowska et al (2016) carried out an independent replication of Gable and Harmon-Jones's (2008). The authors were able to replicate the original study showing that positive pictures that were approach-motivated narrowed attention compared to neutral pictures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The effect of sadness on global-local processing

Mühlenen

Bellaera

Singh

et al. 2018

Atten Percept Psychophys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gable and Harmon-Jones (Psychological Science, 21(2), 211-215, 2010) reported that sadness broadens attention in a global-local letter task. This finding provided the key test for their motivational intensity account, which states that the level of spatial processing is not determined by emotional valence, but by motivational intensity. However, their finding is at odds with several other studies, showing no effect, or even a narrowing effect of sadness on attention. This paper reports two attempts to replicate the broadening effect of sadness on attention. Both experiments used a global-local letter task, but differed in terms of emotion induction: Experiment 1 used the same pictures as Gable and Harmon-Jones, taken from the IAPS dataset; Experiment 2 used a sad video underlaid with sad music. Results showed a sadness-specific global advantage in the error rates, but not in the reaction times. The same null results were also found in a South-Asian sample in both experiments, showing that effects on global/local processing were not influenced by a culturally related processing bias.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The effect of sadness on global-local processing

Mühlenen

Bellaera

Singh

et al. 2018

Atten Percept Psychophys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, there are mixed findings regarding the impact of self-rated negative emotion (e.g., sadness) upon attentional selection: Some studies have found that self-rated sadness increases attentional focus (Basso et al, 1996; Fenske & Eastwood, 2003; Gasper & Clore, 2002; Melcher et al, 2012), and some studies have found that sadness had no impact on attentional processing (Finucane et al, 2010; Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Rowe et al, 2007; Tibboel, 2018; Uddenberg & Shim, 2015; von Mühlenen et al, 2018) or even that it reduced it (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2010). There is also conflicting evidence regarding the impact of positive emotion on attentional selection: Some studies have reported that positive affect broadens attentional selection (Domachowska et al, 2016; Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008), but others have failed to replicate these effects (Bruyneel et al, 2013; Grol & Raedt, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also conflicting evidence regarding the impact of positive emotion on attentional selection: some studies have reported that positive affect broadens attentional selection (Domachowska et al, 2016;Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008), but other have failed to replicate these effects (Bruyneel et al, 2013;Grol & Raedt, 2014). So far it is unclear which variables are responsible for these mixed findings.…”

Section: Figure 16mentioning

confidence: 99%

No evidence that self-rated negative emotion boosts visual working memory precision.

Souza¹,

Thaler²,

Liesefeld³

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emotion is assumed to change how people process information by modulating attentional focus. Two recent studies (Spachtholz, Kuhbandner, & Pekrun, 2014;Xie & Zhang, 2016) reported that self-reported negative emotion boosted the precision with which information was stored in visual working memory. Here we attempted and failed to replicate these findings across 7 studies conducted in four countries. Emotion was induced by presenting emotional images (negative, neutral, and positive) before each trial of a visual working memory task (6 experiments) or the images were combined with emotional music during a 3-min induction phase (1 experiment) occurring prior to the memory task. In the visual working memory task, participants stored (emotionally-neutral) continuously-varying colored dots or oriented triangles. At test, the color or orientation of a probed item was reproduced. Although participants reported changes in their emotional state commensurate with the manipulations, six experiments showed substantial evidence against changes in visual working memory precision (and quantity) under negative (and positive) emotion in comparison to neutral; whereas one condition, in one study, showed increased precision under both negative and positive emotion compared to neutral. These results challenge the view that emotion modulates visual working memory quality and quantity.

show abstract

“…As noted above, Crowell et al (2014) used a different attentional breadth measure, and a different self-control task, and found that attentional breadth was significantly more broad for high-approach individuals after exercising self-control, which is opposite to the findings reported here. They also claimed that their results provided evidence that self-control increased approach motivation for high BAS individuals, although this conclusion fits their findings less well given the well-replicated relationship between attentional narrowing and greater approach motivation (e.g., Domachowska et al, 2016;Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008;Gable, Mechin, & Neal, 2016;Harmon-Jones & Gable, 2009;Harmon-Jones, Price, & Gable, 2012;Hicks, Friedman, Gable, & Davis, 2012;Juergensen & Demaree, 2015;Liu, Wang, Quan, & Li, 2017;Liu, Zhang, Zhou, & Wang, 2014). Some findings in the literature suggest that approach motivation can result in broadened attentional breadth in contexts other than viewing images of appetitive stimuli (e.g., see Förster, Friedman, Ozelsel, & Denzler, 2006;Friedman & Förster, 2010).…”

Section: Approach and Attentional Breadthmentioning

confidence: 95%

Self-control and its influence on global/local processing: An investigation of the role of frontal alpha asymmetry and dispositional approach tendencies

Pitchford

Arnell

2018

Atten Percept Psychophys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People often inhibit or override their dominant response tendencies in order to complete tasks successfully. Exerting such selfcontrol has been shown to influence attentional breadth differently depending on approach-motivated tendencies, as indexed by individuals' behavioral activation system (BAS) scores. Approach motivation and attentional breadth have previously been associated with frontal alpha asymmetry (i.e., lateralized cortical activity in the frontal regions) where greater left-frontal activation is associated with greater approach motivation and reduced attentional breadth. The process model of self-control posits that exercising self-control leads to a subsequent increase in approach behavior in high BAS individuals, and this could be due to a shift towards left-hemisphere-frontal processing. This was the first study to examine both frontal asymmetry and attentional breadth before and after exercising self-control in low and high BAS individuals. Greater BAS, and greater difficulty exercising self-control, both positively related to more narrowed attentional breadth after completing the manipulation relative to before, but only after exercising self-control. However, breadth of attention and changes in attentional breadth were unrelated to frontal asymmetry, suggesting that the influence of self-control on individuals' attentional breadth was not due to changes in frontal activation patterns.

show abstract

Approach-motivated positive affect reduces breadth of attention: Registered replication report of Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008)

Cited by 28 publications

References 31 publications

The effect of sadness on global-local processing

The effect of sadness on global-local processing

No evidence that self-rated negative emotion boosts visual working memory precision.

Self-control and its influence on global/local processing: An investigation of the role of frontal alpha asymmetry and dispositional approach tendencies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About